DRAVIDIANS
There is general agreement among ethnologists that the Dravidian
population is a branch of the Mediterranean race, or at least
a closely allied one. while the Mediterranean race is White,
the Dravidians are much darker, ranging from the dark Greek and
Italian complexion to black. There is also a wide range
of difference in the shape of the skull, the color and texture
of the hair, the color of the eyes, and the shape of the nose.
These deviations can be explained with a probable interbreeding
between the Dravidians and Mundas, as it is still taking place
in the Chotanagpur region between the Dravidian Oraons and the
neighboring Mundas.

The
Dravidians entered India before the Aryans, before 2000 B.C.,
after passing through Mesopotamia, Iran, and Baluchistan where
the Brahuis, a Dravidian race, still live. On grounds of
cultural affinities such as inheritance through women, snake cults,
organization of society, and structure of temples, some historians
connect the Dravidians with the Elamites and Mesopotamians. The
evidence of Indian skulls from the Indus Valley indicates that
the Mediter-ranean stock became established in north India before
the Harappab Civilisation came into existence around 2000 B.C.

Granted
that the Dravidians were,originally Mediterraneans and that they
passed through Mesopotamia, Iran, and Baluchistan, exactly from
which Mediter-ranean region did they come?

Of
particular significance is archeologist B. B. Lal's contention
that the Dravidians probably came from Nubia, Upper Egypt.
This theory would give them among other things their Mediterranean
features and dark complexion. Lal writes:
"At Timos the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient
Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of
early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar
to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from
the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware
ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were
identical." According to Lal, the Nubian megaliths date
from around 1000 B.C.

The
linguistic studies of scholars like S. K. Chatterji have discovered
many cognate words in ancient Egyptian and Nubian languages and
Tamil. Fur-ther, the new findings on the Indus heiroglyphics
by M. V. N. Krishna Rao, Fateh Singn, H. S. Parpola, K. A. Parpola,
S. J. Koskenniemi, and Yu. Knorozov claim to have deciphered the
script in terms of Proto-Dravidian and thus confirm the findings
of the venerable Indian historian Father Heras that the Harappan
people spoke a Dravidian language in the third millennium B.C.

My
own comparative analysis of the Dravidian myth of Kovalan and
Kannaki celebrated in the ancient Tamil Shilappadikaram
with the ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis confirms the
Egyptian origin of the ancient Dravidians. These two myths are
very similar in content and help explain each other and argue
for a common ethnic origin. The long ships used by the Egyptians
in the third millennium B.C. could have easily carried the Dravidians
to the banks of the Indus River and/or all the way to South India.
The sea-route-however, does not exclude the possibility of the
early Dravidians taking a land route from the Phoenician shores
through Iran and Baluchistan to India. No wonder, similar hieroglyphic
writings are found both in Egypt and India.